The Imaginal Change Podcast

What if friendship isn't just "nice to have," but one of the most powerful skills we have for navigating a world in crisis?

In this episode, I'm joined by storyteller, designer, and "friendship entrepreneur" Jenn Maer to talk about adult friendship, community, repair, and how even the smallest connections can help us feel less alone and more resourced for these times.

In this episode, we explore:

• Why friendship is hard for so many adults—and why that's not a personal failing but a skill gap we can actually work with.

• The power of "outer circle" friends (like baristas and neighbors) in creating a sense of everyday belonging and community.

• What changes when we center friendship and friendliness in organizations, instead of only profit or productivity metrics.

• How to stay when things get "relationship-y," including conflict, projections, and hurt feelings—without abandoning ourselves.

• "Messiprocity" and the courage to be seen, and how sharing our mess can create mutual support, healing, and real-deal connection.

If you've ever felt lonely, wished friendship came more easily, or longed for more real-deal community in a time of isolation and overwhelm, I think you'll find something deeply validating—and practically hopeful—in this conversation.

✨ Here's to friendship as rebellion, as mutual aid, and as a path to a more humanized future—for all of us.

Connect with Jenn:

Website LinkedIn Knitted Together Co.

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Meghan O'Malley is a Transformational Leadership Coach & Consultant, TEDx Speaker, Author, and host of The Imaginal Change Podcast. Through Imaginal Change and Imaginal Intelligence, she helps leaders, organizations, and changemakers navigate uncertainty, strengthen relationships, and develop the distinctly human capacities needed to lead meaningful change.

Learn more: https://meghan-omalley.com

Watch Meghan's TEDx Talk: Unshakeable: The Power of Connection When Everything's Crumbling

Read Unstuck Yourself: Thrive Beyond Burnout & Discover Your True Purpose (co-authored by Meghan O'Malley and Laura Cardwell)

Subscribe for more conversations on YouTube

Whether you're exploring transformational leadership, leadership development, organizational transformation, adaptive leadership, navigating uncertainty, the future of work, Imaginal Change, Imaginal Intelligence, embodied leadership, relational capacity, Human Design, somatic intelligence, applied neuroscience, or systems thinking, we hope these conversations offer practical insight, thoughtful reflection, and meaningful connection.

Some conversations are simply too good to live in only one place.

This week, I'm sharing an encore of a conversation I had with Heather Gates on her podcast, Stand in the & —because it touches so beautifully on something I keep returning to in my work (and, let's be honest, my own life):

The nuanced dance between control and surrender.

Because surrender doesn't mean giving up our agency.

And agency doesn't mean we can—or should—control what happens next.

So much of being human asks us to live somewhere in the messy middle: participating fully in our lives while releasing our grip on the outcome. Making intentional choices while staying available to what we couldn't have predicted. Creating enough internal safety to remain present when certainty simply isn't available.

Heather and I explore what becomes possible when we stop treating these things as either/or propositions and learn to "stand in the AND."

We talk about:

• Why our desire for control often makes perfect sense—and what our nervous systems have to do with it.

• The important difference between agency and control.

• Why surrender isn't passive, but can actually require tremendous capacity and trust.

• The paradoxes we're asked to hold when life refuses to give us a clean answer.

• How connection—to ourselves, to other humans, and to something larger than ourselves—expands our capacity to navigate uncertainty.

• Why authentic leadership requires us to stay present with complexity rather than rushing to eliminate it.

• What becomes possible when we loosen our grip on what we think should happen and become more available to what is actually emerging.

In many ways, this conversation lives right in the heart of what I now call the Convergence Window—those pressurized spaces where the known story is no longer quite working, the next one hasn't fully arrived, and our protective instincts and creative potential are activated at the very same time.

We may not get to control what emerges from those moments.

But we absolutely get to participate in who we become inside of them.

Connect with Heather:

Heather Gates, MPH, is the Owner and Strategy Partner of Human-Centered Strategy, LLC and the host of Stand in the &, a podcast exploring what becomes possible when we make room for complexity, paradox, and the many ANDs of being human.

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Meghan O'Malley is a Transformational Leadership Coach & Consultant, TEDx Speaker, Author, and host of The Imaginal Change Podcast. Through Imaginal Change and Imaginal Intelligence, she helps leaders, organizations, and changemakers navigate uncertainty, strengthen relationships, and develop the distinctly human capacities needed to lead meaningful change.

Learn more: https://meghan-omalley.com

Watch Meghan's TEDx Talk: Unshakeable: The Power of Connection When Everything's Crumbling

Read Unstuck Yourself: Thrive Beyond Burnout & Discover Your True Purpose (co-authored by Meghan O'Malley and Laura Cardwell)

Subscribe for more conversations on YouTube

Whether you're exploring transformational leadership, leadership development, organizational transformation, adaptive leadership, navigating uncertainty, the future of work, Imaginal Change, Imaginal Intelligence, embodied leadership, relational capacity, Human Design, somatic intelligence, applied neuroscience, or systems thinking, we hope these conversations offer practical insight, thoughtful reflection, and meaningful connection.

What if the structures you've been resisting aren't limiting your creativity—but making more of it possible?

In this conversation, I'm joined by business coach, leadership mentor, and former martial arts studio owner Korie Kennedy to explore the often-overlooked relationship between structure, creativity and freedom. Together, we unpack why the right systems don't diminish creativity—they create the conditions for it to flourish.

From nervous system regulation and entrepreneurship to Human Design, AI, and Zen practice, this conversation is an invitation to rethink what it means to build a business—and a life—that supports who you're becoming rather than one that asks you to abandon yourself.

If you've ever felt torn between following your creative flow and creating more structure, this episode offers a reminder that the two aren't opposites. In many ways, they very much need each other.

In this episode, we explore:

• Why the right structures create more freedom, creativity, and spaciousness—not less.

• The relationship between nervous system regulation, uncertainty, and sustainable leadership.

• The difference between devotion and fixation, and why that distinction matters more than ever.

• Why our relationship with AI is far more nuanced than fear or hype, and how, when used intentionally, it can create more room for our humanity, creativity, and deepest contributions to flourish.

• Why rest isn't separate from meaningful work—it's part of the rhythm that makes meaningful work possible.

• How Human Design can affirm the way you're naturally designed to build, lead, and contribute.

• Why this moment in history may be calling us into a more creative, relational, and deeply human way of living and leading.

If you're navigating growth, leading others, building something meaningful, or simply trying to create a life that feels more aligned, I think you'll find yourself somewhere in this conversation.

Connect with Korie: Website: https://koriekennedy.com

Continue the Conversation

Meghan O'Malley is a Transformational Leadership Coach & Consultant, TEDx Speaker, Author, and host of The Imaginal Change Podcast. Through Imaginal Change and Imaginal Intelligence, she helps leaders, organizations, and changemakers navigate uncertainty, strengthen relationships, and develop the distinctly human capacities needed to lead meaningful change.

Learn more: https://meghan-omalley.com

Watch Meghan's TEDx Talk: Unshakeable: The Power of Connection When Everything's Crumbling

Read Unstuck Yourself: Thrive Beyond Burnout & Discover Your True Purpose (co-authored by Meghan O'Malley and Laura Cardwell)

Subscribe for more conversations on YouTube

Whether you're exploring transformational leadership, leadership development, organizational transformation, adaptive leadership, navigating uncertainty, the future of work, Imaginal Change, Imaginal Intelligence, embodied leadership, relational capacity, Human Design, somatic intelligence, applied neuroscience, or systems thinking, we hope these conversations offer practical insight, thoughtful reflection, and meaningful connection.

Every birthday invites reflection.

As I looked back on the past year, I realized it wasn't just the external milestones that changed me—it was uncovering the hidden protection strategies beneath the way I'd been living, and discovering what became possible when I no longer needed them quite so much.

In this solo episode, I share some of the most meaningful insights to emerge from a year that included divorce, grief, launching a book, giving a TEDx talk, reclaiming my family name, traveling through Europe with my son, and beginning to see the world through a different lens.

Together, we explore why trust is more metabolically efficient than control, the hidden cost of shrinking our dreams to protect ourselves from disappointment, what it really means to live with open palms instead of clenched fists, and why every ounce of energy we spend protecting ourselves from life is energy that's no longer available to help us create it.

Because perhaps the greatest lesson of all is this: the space between stories isn't empty. It may be one of the most creative places we'll ever find ourselves.

If you're navigating change, feeling the tension of not quite knowing what's next, or simply reflecting on your own season of becoming, I hope this conversation reminds you that the in-between isn't empty. It's alive with possibility.

Continue the Conversation

Meghan O'Malley is a Transformational Leadership Coach & Consultant, TEDx Speaker, Author, and host of The Imaginal Change Podcast. Through Imaginal Change and Imaginal Intelligence, she helps leaders, organizations, and changemakers navigate uncertainty, strengthen relationships, and develop the distinctly human capacities needed to lead meaningful change.

Learn more: https://meghan-omalley.com

Watch Meghan's TEDx Talk: Unshakeable: The Power of Connection When Everything's Crumbling

Read Unstuck Yourself: Thrive Beyond Burnout & Discover Your True Purpose (co-authored by Meghan O'Malley and Laura Cardwell)

Subscribe for more conversations on YouTube

Whether you're exploring transformational leadership, leadership development, organizational transformation, adaptive leadership, navigating uncertainty, the future of work, Imaginal Change, Imaginal Intelligence, embodied leadership, relational capacity, Human Design, somatic intelligence, applied neuroscience, or systems thinking, we hope these conversations offer practical insight, thoughtful reflection, and meaningful connection.

What if imagination isn't just a gift for artists or dreamers, but one of our greatest untapped resources for healing, leadership, and meaningful change?

In this conversation, I'm joined by mixed media artist, writer, and imagination advocate Sarah Bush for an exploration of creativity, love, grief, community, and the power of imagination to help us navigate uncertain times.

Together, we explore the difference between creativity and imagination, why so many people have learned to disown both, and how imagination can become a sacred and practical resource for cultivating greater agency, inner safety, and collective possibility. We talk about fear and nervous system regulation, art and activism, joy and grief, and what it means to orient ourselves toward love—even when the world feels overwhelming.

From spirituality and somatics to Human Design and collective healing, this conversation is ultimately an invitation to remember that imagination isn't frivolous or reserved for a creative few. It's a uniquely human capacity that allows us to envision, embody, and participate in creating what's next.

In this episode, we explore:

• Why creativity is a way of relating to life—not just artistic talent. • How fear and culture can hijack our imaginal capacity. • Why nervous system regulation helps us access intuition and possibility. • Imagination as a spiritual practice and a pathway to love. • Using art and ritual as containers for grief, anger, and longing. • Why joy isn't selfish—and may actually be an act of service. • How healing and creativity ripple through families, communities, and systems.

If you've ever felt discouraged by the state of the world, wondered how to stay open without becoming overwhelmed, or sensed that there might be a more loving and creative way to participate in these changing times, I think you'll find something meaningful in this conversation. ✨

Connect with Sarah:

Website: https://sarahbushartworks.com

Newsletter: The Pink Teacup on Substack

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Meghan O'Malley is a Transformational Leadership Coach & Consultant, TEDx Speaker, Author, and host of The Imaginal Change Podcast. Through Imaginal Change and Imaginal Intelligence, she helps leaders, organizations, and changemakers navigate uncertainty, strengthen relationships, and develop the distinctly human capacities needed to lead meaningful change.

Learn more: https://meghan-omalley.com

Watch Meghan's TEDx Talk: Unshakeable: The Power of Connection When Everything's Crumbling

Read Unstuck Yourself: Thrive Beyond Burnout & Discover Your True Purpose (co-authored by Meghan O'Malley and Laura Cardwell)

Subscribe for more conversations on YouTube

Whether you're exploring transformational leadership, leadership development, organizational transformation, adaptive leadership, navigating uncertainty, the future of work, Imaginal Change, Imaginal Intelligence, embodied leadership, relational capacity, Human Design, somatic intelligence, applied neuroscience, or systems thinking, we hope these conversations offer practical insight, thoughtful reflection, and meaningful connection.

What if the magic we're looking for isn't something we create alone, but something we participate in together? In this conversation, I'm joined by leadership strategist, storyteller, photographer, fellow TEDx speaker, writer and friend, David Huff for an exploration of story, belonging, and what he calls "trail magic"—the small and significant ways we support one another along the journey of life. Drawing from hiking culture, family stories, mythology, photography, and everyday life, we explore how meaning is made, why receiving is just as important as giving, and what it means to stay human in a world that rewards performance and certainty. Together, we talk about shadow and light, archetypes and inner parts, feedback as an act of love, and why perhaps our greatest superpower is our capacity to belong, cooperate, and welcome each other's weirdness. Most of all, this conversation is an invitation to remember that none of us are meant to walk alone. In this episode, we explore:

• The deeper meaning of trail magic and why receiving is part of participation.
• How stories help us navigate change and create meaning.
• Loving people in ways that meet their needs, not just our own.
• Why both shadow and light belong in a healthy life.
• Feedback, forgiveness, and honest mirrors as forms of care.
• Attention, presence, and the wisdom available when we slow down.
• Why welcoming each other's weirdness matters.

If you've ever felt tired of carrying it all alone, wondered how to stay human in a noisy world, or sensed that the future we're longing for will require more participation and less performance, I think you'll find something meaningful in this conversation. ✨ Connect with David: Leadership Strategy & Consulting https://corporatecraft.net Photography & Creative Work https://davidhuffcreative.com Trail Magic Project https://wearetrailmagic.com

Continue the Conversation

Meghan O'Malley is a Transformational Leadership Coach & Consultant, TEDx Speaker, Author, and host of The Imaginal Change Podcast. Through Imaginal Change and Imaginal Intelligence, she helps leaders, organizations, and changemakers navigate uncertainty, strengthen relationships, and develop the distinctly human capacities needed to lead meaningful change.

Learn more: https://meghan-omalley.com

Watch Meghan's TEDx Talk: Unshakeable: The Power of Connection When Everything's Crumbling

Read Unstuck Yourself: Thrive Beyond Burnout & Discover Your True Purpose (co-authored by Meghan O'Malley and Laura Cardwell)

Subscribe for more conversations on YouTube

Whether you're exploring transformational leadership, leadership development, organizational transformation, adaptive leadership, navigating uncertainty, the future of work, Imaginal Change, Imaginal Intelligence, embodied leadership, relational capacity, Human Design, somatic intelligence, applied neuroscience, or systems thinking, we hope these conversations offer practical insight, thoughtful reflection, and meaningful connection.

What if softness is actually one of the most impactful forms of power?

In this episode, I'm joined by Amy Natalie, a women's embodiment guide, author of The Feminine Way, and host of The Feminine Frequency podcast — and this conversation is an invitation to reclaim what so many of us have been taught to diminish and dismiss: pleasure, softness, and the unfiltered wisdom that lives in the body.

We got honest about the long, humbling path of unlearning — trading perfectionism, people-pleasing, and "good girl" conditioning for genuine aliveness. And we talked about what it means to stop performing our healing and start actually living our lessons, sharing the wisdom that only comes from having walked (stumbled) through it.

In this conversation, we explore:

• Overthinking as both wound and gift — how to stop fighting your analytical mind and start letting deep thinking and deep feeling work together

• Body-led decision making — why pros-and-cons lists will only get you so far, and how to feel a decision before your mind catches up

• Good girl conditioning — the painful, liberating choice to stop performing a life and start actually living & enjoying it.

• Softness as a source of power — the radical reclamation of "soft" as a strength, and using the body as a litmus test for alignment

• New paradigm leadership — the shift from hustle-based hierarchy to resonance-based, truth-centered leadership

This one is for the overthinkers, the recovering good girls, and the secret softies who are done burning out for their purpose. If you're longing for a way to lead, love, and create that feels honest in your body — not just impressive on paper — this conversation is for you.

Connect with Amy:

• Website / offerings: https://amynatalieco.com/

• Book: The Feminine Way

• Podcast: The Feminine Frequency — available on all major platforms

Continue the Conversation

Meghan O'Malley is a Transformational Leadership Coach & Consultant, TEDx Speaker, Author, and host of The Imaginal Change Podcast. Through Imaginal Change and Imaginal Intelligence, she helps leaders, organizations, and changemakers navigate uncertainty, strengthen relationships, and develop the distinctly human capacities needed to lead meaningful change.

Learn more: https://meghan-omalley.com

Watch Meghan's TEDx Talk: Unshakeable: The Power of Connection When Everything's Crumbling

Read Unstuck Yourself: Thrive Beyond Burnout & Discover Your True Purpose (co-authored by Meghan O'Malley and Laura Cardwell)

Subscribe for more conversations on YouTube

Whether you're exploring transformational leadership, leadership development, organizational transformation, adaptive leadership, navigating uncertainty, the future of work, Imaginal Change, Imaginal Intelligence, embodied leadership, relational capacity, Human Design, somatic intelligence, applied neuroscience, or systems thinking, we hope these conversations offer practical insight, thoughtful reflection, and meaningful connection.

Dr. Maiysha Clairborne — integrative physician & trauma-informed communication expert— joins me for a deeply human conversation about healing the stories we inherited, rewriting the ones we're living, and doing that work in community instead of isolation.

We talk about what it really means to be a healer at the core in a world obsessed with independence and performance — and how Maiysha's journey from conventional medicine to remapping minds and cultures has required enormous faith, nervous system repair, and brave, non-linear choices. We also get into Human Design, money stories, motherhood, and why healing belongs in boardrooms just as much as it does in therapy rooms.

Underneath it all is a conviction we both share: your past is always in the room with you — but that doesn't mean it's in control.

In this episode, we explore:

• Why so many people avoid inner work — and how to approach healing in doable, compassionate, bite-sized ways

• The difference between self-reflection and being truly accompanied in the work

• How to discern which inherited patterns to keep, which to compost, and why even the "weeds" carry medicine

• "Borrowing belief" — letting community hold faith for you when you can't access it yourself

• Why healing belongs in the workplace — and what trauma-informed, trust-centered culture actually looks like

This one is for anyone who feels like they "should have it together by now," who's tired of healing alone, or who suspects the patterns they inherited aren't the ones they're meant to pass on.

Connect with Maiysha:

• Her work & offerings: The Mind Remapping Company

• Her podcast: Beliefs, Behaviors, Communication, and the Brain

• Her books: The Wellness Blueprint and Conscious Anti-Racism

Continue the Conversation

Meghan O'Malley is a Transformational Leadership Coach & Consultant, TEDx Speaker, Author, and host of The Imaginal Change Podcast. Through Imaginal Change and Imaginal Intelligence, she helps leaders, organizations, and changemakers navigate uncertainty, strengthen relationships, and develop the distinctly human capacities needed to lead meaningful change.

Learn more: https://meghan-omalley.com

Watch Meghan's TEDx Talk: Unshakeable: The Power of Connection When Everything's Crumbling

Read Unstuck Yourself: Thrive Beyond Burnout & Discover Your True Purpose (co-authored by Meghan O'Malley and Laura Cardwell)

Subscribe for more conversations on YouTube

Whether you're exploring transformational leadership, leadership development, organizational transformation, adaptive leadership, navigating uncertainty, the future of work, Imaginal Change, Imaginal Intelligence, embodied leadership, relational capacity, Human Design, somatic intelligence, applied neuroscience, or systems thinking, we hope these conversations offer practical insight, thoughtful reflection, and meaningful connection.

Ashley Berger — creator of Sweet Pea Lifestyle, TEDx speaker, and devoted believer that dinner parties can change the world — joins me for a warm, honest, and surprisingly radical conversation about hospitality, community, and what it really looks like to build a life around bringing people together.

We explore how 18 years of gathering people around a table has evolved from recipes and pretty tablescapes into something she feels is genuinely needed right now — a deeper, braver invitation to honest human connection. And how Ashley's projector energy, her TEDx message, and her own quiet reinvention are all pointing toward the same truth: real connection requires presence, not performance.

In this episode, we explore:

• What "radical hospitality" actually means — choosing connection over comfort, especially in charged or uncomfortable moments

• How hosting can become performative and draining, and the shift Ashley made to ensure the host gets held too

• Human Design Projector-style leadership in practice: guiding more than grinding, and trusting the power of being recognized and invited rather than forcing things

• The deceptively powerful practice of hosting yourself daily — setting a place at the table, eating with intention, and extending to yourself the same care you give others

• Reclaiming "hospitality" and "homemaker" as expansive, inclusive, culture-making words — not gendered limitations

• Why small, intimate tables are where deep transformation most often happens — not comment threads, not massive networking rooms, or huge events

This one is for anyone who longs for more face-to-face, heart-to-heart human connection — and is ready to open their door, even imperfectly, to make it happen.

Connect with Ashley:

• Website & resources: sweetpealifestyle.com

• Substack: Sweet Pea Supper Club — monthly dinner party kits, recipes, and conversation prompts for both new and long-time friends

• Watch her Tedx talk, Dinner Parties Can Change The World

• Find her on social media @sweetpealifestyle

Continue the Conversation

Meghan O'Malley is a Transformational Leadership Coach & Consultant, TEDx Speaker, Author, and host of The Imaginal Change Podcast. Through Imaginal Change and Imaginal Intelligence, she helps leaders, organizations, and changemakers navigate uncertainty, strengthen relationships, and develop the distinctly human capacities needed to lead meaningful change.

Learn more: https://meghan-omalley.com

Watch Meghan's TEDx Talk: Unshakeable: The Power of Connection When Everything's Crumbling

Read Unstuck Yourself: Thrive Beyond Burnout & Discover Your True Purpose (co-authored by Meghan O'Malley and Laura Cardwell)

Subscribe for more conversations on YouTube

Whether you're exploring transformational leadership, leadership development, organizational transformation, adaptive leadership, navigating uncertainty, the future of work, Imaginal Change, Imaginal Intelligence, embodied leadership, relational capacity, Human Design, somatic intelligence, applied neuroscience, or systems thinking, we hope these conversations offer practical insight, thoughtful reflection, and meaningful connection.

Heather Gates—strategist, facilitator, host of the Stand in the & podcast, and devoted lover of humans—joins me for a rich, imaginal conversation about alignment, paradox, and what it really looks like to live in service to human flourishing without burning yourself to the ground in the process.

We explore how metaphor, somatics, and parts work can help us befriend the many versions of ourselves over a lifetime — what Heather beautifully calls "the kaleidoscope of butterflies" — and how to keep watering the orchid of our lives when we're deep in the not-yet.

In this episode, we explore:

• Honoring sensitivity, big feelings, and "too muchness" through somatics and parts work (IFS) instead of shaming or suppressing them

• Why we often don't realize we're out of alignment until we finally say yes to what we've been longing to do and feel it "click."

• Actually flourishing vs. performing flourishing — building a life that feels alive in the body, not just impressive on paper

• Softening as a spiritual and somatic practice: moving from inner ass-kicking to self-regard, gentleness, and open-handedness

• Why we need at least one person who can meet us in the "I can't tell which end is up" moments — and what becomes possible when we find them

This one is for anyone navigating transition, living between stories, or trying to honor their purpose without abandoning their body. If you're longing for a more humane way to work, lead, and live, this conversation is for you.

Connect with Heather:

• Strategy & facilitation work: human-centeredstrategy.com

• Find and follow her podcast, "Stand in the & with Heather Gates" on all major platforms

Continue the Conversation

Meghan O'Malley is a Transformational Leadership Coach & Consultant, TEDx Speaker, Author, and host of The Imaginal Change Podcast. Through Imaginal Change and Imaginal Intelligence, she helps leaders, organizations, and changemakers navigate uncertainty, strengthen relationships, and develop the distinctly human capacities needed to lead meaningful change.

Learn more: https://meghan-omalley.com

Watch Meghan's TEDx Talk: Unshakeable: The Power of Connection When Everything's Crumbling

Read Unstuck Yourself: Thrive Beyond Burnout & Discover Your True Purpose (co-authored by Meghan O'Malley and Laura Cardwell)

Subscribe for more conversations on YouTube

Whether you're exploring transformational leadership, leadership development, organizational transformation, adaptive leadership, navigating uncertainty, the future of work, Imaginal Change, Imaginal Intelligence, embodied leadership, relational capacity, Human Design, somatic intelligence, applied neuroscience, or systems thinking, we hope these conversations offer practical insight, thoughtful reflection, and meaningful connection.